Two of my favorite books of the Bible are the Thessalonians, both of them. In each, there are verses that talk about the return of Jesus Christ. This is a time of seeking Him with all we have. It is a time to look forward to that coming back. We should be wanting to see Him like waiting for Christmas when we were kids. You know what I mean. I looked forward to Christmas with great anticipation and felt I could not wait even though it was still weeks away. As the day approached, it became harder and harder to sit still and not touch the presents under the tree. Sometimes I wished for X-ray eyes so I could see inside the packages.
That type of anticipation and more is what should be happening to us right now. We are here for such a time as this. Do you wonder why you were born now instead of back in the “olden days”? I wondered that lots of times, especially when I was growing up. I wanted to know just why now? What is so great about living right now? We are in a time of Biblical prophecies. The great prophets would love to be living in this time that we so casually blow off as being hard times.
Not all of us are waiting with great anticipation, are we? Some of us are worried that we have not done all we can do. Some are just not interested. They won’t be until it’s too late. Some simply think they have done what they need to do and are unaware that more is necessary. We are all in need of seeking God’s Face. We are all in need of doing the jobs we are called to do according to God’s purpose.
Now is definitely not the time to go off on our own paths. We are here for such a time as this. Mordecai said that to Esther right before she became queen. God called her to be in that place, at that time. We are called to be in this place, at this time. What an awesome God we serve. But if you are not serving God as you should or your life is not as it should be, please come to Jesus right now. Ask Him for forgiveness and ask Him to enter your heart to live forever. He is your Savior, waiting for you to call to Him. He loves you so much! He died just for you.
We love You, Lord. We seek you night and day. Early will I seek Your Face. Thank You for all the blessings that You give to us. Thank You that we, who are so slow at seeing what is so obvious, are patiently being taught by You. Please do not let your patience run thin with us. The Light shines through the clouds. The morning is here. God has brought us peace. We are free.
The last ten days have been, to say the least, hectic for me. My usual routine is to take the time, first thing in the morning, and study and pray to have the information for the devotional that I want to post on this blog. But, those hectic days…I feel…robbed me of that. I could not take the time for this because of time problems in honoring commitments to my extended family. I apologize to my readers who may feel neglected here.
Believe me when I tell you that I love my family. They are precious to me. However, I really need the time to study and pray for my commitment to my Father too. That is so important. I hope to be able to spend more time with the Lord in the next few days. But for now……
We are called as witnesses of Jesus Christ Who was crucified for us, all of us. Not all will listen and accept but we must witness and do our jobs. Jesus told us to do this.
(Mar 16:15) And He said to them, Go into all the world, proclaim the gospel to all the creation.
As Christians, not just preachers or ministers, but as Christians, we are called to this task. And we can know who is willing to believe. Those who will come and see what God has offered. And those who do accept Jesus as Savior get a major benefit. Those who refuse do not get this:
(Mar 16:16) He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.
But what does that mean? Jesus died on the cross to save the world but the world does not believe this. But those who do will see the salvation of the Lord. They will be baptized and saved. Those who do not believe, will be condemned to hell with the fallen angels and the devil who is truly looking to pull as many as he can into that pit with him. He is working so hard to do this.
If you have not received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, please consider doing this right now. All you need to do is ask the Lord to forgive your sins. Yes, those things that you know are the wrong things in your life. Then, you ask Jesus to come into your heart and dwell there. He will do this!!! You have not done something so horrible that He will not forgive you. Please consider this.
When you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, find an good church and join it. Be a participant. Witness of Who has given you peace in your life. Enjoy the Lord!!!
The first time I ever heard this song it was sung by Danny Gaither. Frankly, I do not believe that anyone person could ever sing it like Danny could. Could not find one with Danny singing the song so I had to use the Gaither Vocal Band. They do a terrific job and I love this rendition but I wish I could have found it with Danny singing. That would have made my day. Here are the guys of the Gaither Vocal Band singing There Is A River, one of my very favorite songs of all time.
If you want to see any music up here by a group or singer, please leave a comment so I can try to find it. Thank you and God bless you richly.
I must tell you about a website that is brand new to me, Gospel Music Fan. I heard about it when someone from there commented about my website, particularly the post with video on Ernie Haase and The Signature Sound. Those guys are awesome and I love listening to them.
So, if you need information concerning the Southern Gospel groups, mosey on down to the Gospel Music Fan and take a long look around. They will give you all the info you need. It’s a pleasure to blog about these fine folks. And I thank them for the link on their website!!!
Small note: I have been out of town on Monday and Tuesday. We will have more devotionals as we receive them.
My Grandmother loved spiritual songs and this one was always one of her favorites. She has gone to be with the Lord now but she made sure I knew this one song. It took me many years to not cry when hearing this song. And with this video, we find out that Rex Nelon had gone to be with the Lord the night before. We can dedicate this song and video to my Grandmother and to Rex Nelon.
If you have any requests, please put them on the comments section of this post. Thank you for being here.
I first saw this group when I bought the Toronto CD of The Gaithers Homecoming. These guys are totally awesome. The sound is something different. They take the quartet thing to a new level, in my opinion. I listen to the music and it fills me with gladness and peace. And now, here are Ernie Hasse and the Signature Sound singing an awesome song called Then Came The Morning:
I was going to leave it at that but I decided to add an extra bonus of these guys who blow my socks off!!! So, here are the guys singing Til We Fly Away!!!
As always, if you have a request, please put it into the comments section and I will try to find it for you. Thank you and I hope you enjoy the music.
This is just a small note to those who may wonder why these posts are not up at the same time each day. There are times when I am not able to be alone with God right away during the mornings. Sometimes, things make it difficult. The world steps in. But I do intend to have something up each day.
But I cannot decide when the devotional will be ready. That is in God’s hands. When He gives me what I need to write, that’s when it arrives on the blog. At times, it seems like I don’t hear from Him like I should so it’s much harder to write something than at other times. I have dedicated this blog to God and it is His to write. So, when I receive the message, I write it. Thank you for being patient. It is worth it!!!
God is a giver. That should not be a surprise to you. His gifts are endless, special and wonderful. He states clearly that fear is not His gift and He did not give it to us. We know now that our enemy is the one who gave that gift. Yes, he does give gifts too because he tries to copy what God does, corrupts it and calls it his gift to you. That’s a gift I do not want!
But God did not give the fear. His gifts are power, love and a sound mind.
(2Ti 1:7) For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
What do those gifts mean to us? To me? Okay, let’s examine those a little.
1) Power–We do not have to sit by while the enemy beats us up with his nasty sicknesses and diseases or hurts. God has given us the power of God to withstand the attack, no matter what that attack might be. Are you being attacked by sickness, pain, emotional pain, spiritual pain? God’s power is there to help you. All you need to do is apply it to the situation. God loves you so much that He wanted you to be able to withstand the enemy that torments you.
2) Love–Throughout the Bible, God shows us His love. The greatest gift was that when God’s Son, Jesus, died on the cross for the world, He loves us that much. Far too many people deny even the existence of that sacrifice. Yet God’s love is never ending. Not only that but He put that love in our hearts too!! What an awesome thought! God is love (1John 4:16-And we have known and believed the love that God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.)
3) Sound mind–This is one gift that I have to remind myself of occasionally. It does not always feel like I have a sound mind especially when things go wrong like they tend to do fairly often. Yet, that is the very time that God wants you to use that precious gift He has given you. He chose to make sure we were capable of making sound decisions. Of course, I said He made us capable. That does not mean that we always make sound decisions. Quite often we do not. But we have that ability according to God’s gift.
With God’s sound mind inside of us, we an follow God and do what He requires of us. Without that, we would not even know that God loves so much, let alone be able to follow God. Praise God for a sound mind!!
These gifts, like the others God has given us, are to be used to witness of Jesus and to be a blessing to others. None of His gifts diminish in any way. BY spreading them and giving them to others, they increase!! Isn’t that fabulous!! Nothing that God gives gets smaller. All things increase when used properly as God leads. What a wonderful God we serve!!
Yesterday, the scripture I talked about had to do with stirring up or inflaming anew the gift God has put inside us. We realized that we are to do the stirring or inflaming, not God. We found out that study, reading and prayer would help do this.
God says that He did not give us a spirit of fear. This scripture came directly after the one from yesterday about stirring up the gift inside you.
(2Ti 1:6-7) Therefore I remind you to inflame anew the gift of God, which is in you by the putting on of my hands. For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Now why would God say that right after He talked about getting us inflamed or stirred up with the gift? Why speak of that fear now, particularly? Because God is asking us to use the gift to touch others and what is the fear in doing that? Rejection!! Good old rejection from someone you want to keep as a friend or someone you do not want mad at you. We are so afraid that someone won’t like us talking about God in a society that loves to talk about sex. Does that make sense to you at all??
God tells us that He doesn’t give us the spirit of fear. Three things to note here:
1) that God gives only positive things-power, love, sound mind.
2) that fear is not part of God–ever.
3) that fear is a spirit.
Now, if God didn’t give us the spirit of fear, where did that come from? Our adversary, the dude that, under no circumstances, wants us to learn that we don’t have to accept fear as an option. That dude that wants you to embrace fear and gives it as freely as God gives the His things as gifts. See that gift thing is two sided. You can have gifts from either God or the other dude. However, because at this time, we live in a sin natured world, it is far easier to accept fear than it is to resist it.
Ah, but there is an out, another gift from God. (Don’t you just love all these gifts? It’s like Christmas every single day of your life!)
(James 4:7) Therefore submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
He tells us that if we resist the dude (like the spirit of fear, for instance), the dude has to flee. Now I call that great news. Of course, just resisting once won’t be enough. That guy is very persistent and he doesn’t play fair. He hits you when you’re down. But if you resist him, he is required to flee.
Okay, what was that about power, love and sound mind again? God grants us the privilege of receiving His power, His love and His sound mind, also gifts from Him. If we have a sound mind, we can make sound decisions based on what God tells us. If we have God’s love, we have the ability to see the positive side to any story, to touch anyone with the love of God. If we have God’s power, we can change the world.
These are the days that are called the last days in the scriptures. We are living in a very dangerous time. It is extremely important that we take the time to be with our Lord in prayer, conversation and study. I know that when I do as He wishes and be with Him for a time each day, I feel better about everything. Nothing looms as large as it did before I talk with Him.
(2Ti 1:6) Therefore I remind you to inflame anew the gift of God, which is in you by the putting on of my hands.
My version of that scripture says to “stir up” the gift but I really like this one better because it states that we need to INFLAME anew meaning that we have had the gift given to us already and we need to bring it up to a hot temperature. I do believe that illustrates what God is talking to us about in that scripture. And do take note that God has done His part by giving you the gift.
Notice that the scripture says that YOU stir up the gift. You inflame anew the gift. It is of no effect if you ask God to stir it up for you, inflame for you. This is your responsibility, not His. Isn’t that exciting?!!! We have the ability to stir up or inflame what is inside of us for God!!! You can do this. Have you ever been to a sports event where you just had to shout and scream about the play on the field or court? You just stirred up the feelings inside you for the team of choice. Now stir up the gift in you for God’s team!!
These words bring to mind a campfire or fire in the fireplace that is almost out. Have you seen that? There are no flames left. All you see are some glowing coals and that looks like it’s almost out. When it goes out, there is nothing that can make it flame up again without restarting it. But there are glowing coals so you would get some more wood and tinder to put in there for the fire to get brighter again, to be stirred up, to inflame anew the fire. In the same way, God has given each Christian a gift that needs to be stirred up or inflamed.
I remember back a few years ago, I was taking time to study and pray for hours at a time. A friend of mine would actually get annoyed with me because she wanted to go somewhere but I was enjoying the time with God so much that I could not tear myself away to do what she wanted to do. Of course, she thought that 3-5 hours in prayer and study was a bit much. What I felt was that I had little time to be with God and I wanted all of it I could get. This stirred up the flame that was within me. It was an amazing time.
Over the years, it has become harder and harder to get back to that because of commitments and things needed for the family. In those days, I was single. Now I have a husband and a child that we are raising. There is much less time to devote to prayer and study. But I think that I am missing something I really need when I do not spend the time with the Lord like I used to do. There is a missing element of my day when I am unable to be with God for a time each day.
We, as Christians, must realize that God is telling us to stir up the gift within us because we need it so much, not just for ourselves, but also to serve God in the best way possible by witnessing. These are perilous days. Too many people are needing the Lord but have not heard the message of hope that God tells us to spread to the world. But we have the sure knowledge that Jesus is Lord and that God is with us and in us. So many do not know this!!
What a joy it is to serve our Lord. What a wonder He is!! He is awesome, faithful, powerful, a risen Savior and Lord. I am honored to be His child and His servant. Praise God!!! Give Him your love each day by talking to Him, listening to Him and, in doing so, stirring up the gift within you. Then share the moment with others. What a joy!
For more information on this and other topics, please visit Lura’s Bookcase where there are articles for everyone. If you are not a Christian but would like to know more, please click on God’s Greatest Gift. If you have praise reports or prayer requests, please put them in the comments section of this post. We are blessed to have you visit!!!
